Anti-nuke protesters plan to intensify stir

After a lull, anti-nuclear activists against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project are planning to intensify their stir and take a decision on Wednesday on laying siege to the plant, demanding a halt to the process of loading enriched fuel in the reactor.

S P Udayakumar, evading arrest since the September 10 incident when police lobbed teargas shells and chased away protesters, told reporters at Kuthankuzhi, 10 km from  Kudankulam, that people demanded laying a siege once again to the plant.

"The strategy committee of the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy will meet tomorrow to take a decision," Udayakumar, spearheading the protests, said.

He said the Tamil Nadu government should change its stand and talk to the protesters as it was 'people's protest and fishermen's protest'.

Accusing police of spreading falsehood, he said they were harassing people by conducting house to house searches.

"The people of Idinthakarai are facing problems in getting essential commodities. We are being monitored by the Coast Guard and the police," he said.

Udayakumar said there was no need for him to surrender to police as the nuclear plant issue is before the court. The PMANE leader rubbished the government's charge that the anti-KNPP stir was receiving funds from abroad. "It is only the government which has allowed FDI. We have not got even a single rupee, nor will we take money from foreign countries."

Alleging there was 'jungle raj' in Indithakarai, the epicentre of the stir, he said the government had not come out with a statement about possible compensation to the people in case of a nuclear accident.